The Sovereign Performing Arts Center, in Reading, Pennsylvania hosted the Telefutura Friday night fights with a solid card of action promoted by Top Rank and King Promotions.

Marco Antonio Rubio, 43-4-1 (38), of Mexico, the #4 WBO and #3 WBC contender showed the skills in stopping former Contender Freddy Cuevas, 26-11-1 (17), of Chicago, that have earned him a September middleweight title shot. It was a bloody fight on the part of Cuevas who gave it his all, but he

had no answer for Rubio’s firepower. The Cuevas corner called a halt to the fight at the end of the 5th round. “I got in the best shape of my life and wanted to give it one good shot at a top contender,” said Cuevas. “I look forward to my chance at the title in September. I am much stronger since moving up from light middleweight,” said Rubio. Cuevas at 38 announced his retirement.

The co-feature was a real good fight that had the #6 WBA/WBO lightweight contender Urbano Antillon, 23-0 (16), of Mexico, living in California, showing his patience and punching power to pull himself off the canvas just before the bell sounded ending round 2. His opponent, the hard punching Jose Leonardo Cruz, 12-3 (8), of Columbia, now living in Rochester, New York, lost when the ringside physician thought the swollen left eye was a threat to Cruz’ vision at the end of the 6th round. The Cruz corner was quite upset at the stoppage. “It was a matter of time before I would stop him,” said a very humble Antillon. “Getting knocked down was the best thing that could happen because I was getting a big head,” he added. The body shots from Antillon had Cruz dropping his hands and moving away after throwing punches to avoid Antillon’s straight lead right hands that rocked Cruz throughout. Steve Smoger was the referee for both co features.

The show opener had Luis Del Valle, 2-0 (2), of Newburgh, New York stopping Philly’s Emmanuel Roses, 0-3, at the end of the 1st round of a super featherweight match. The referee Vic deWysocki had seen enough.

The fight of the night pitted Reading’s Harold Cintron, 0-1, in a super lightweight match against Philly’s Gustavo Delli, 1-2. Cintron is the older brother of former IBF welterweight champ Kermit. Cintron started fast busting up Delli’s left eye in the 1st round and had him bleeding from the nose and mouth. It looked like a short night for Delli. To the amazement of the crowd and the heart of a lion, Delli fought his way back after an accidental head butt opened a nasty cut on Cintron’s left eye brow. The 3rd round was give and take with neither fighter giving any ground. The 4th round was more of the same with uppercuts by Cintron seemingly enough to pull the fight out. The judges did not see it that way. Two 39-37 scores and a 38-38 gave Delli a majority decision win.

Another popular local fighter cruiserweight Julio Cesar Matthews, 4-0 (3), who had returned in March after a 10 year absence from the ring showed a lot of punching power in a dual of southpaws pitting Youngstown’s Josh ‘Juice’ Harris, 1-2-1 (1), as the opposition. Harris was overwhelmed in the 1st round getting dropped twice before referee Art Baylis stopped it at 2:23.

Reading’s popular featherweight Lucian Gonzalez, 6-4-1, unbeaten in his last 5 fights, including a draw, put on a display of boxing and punching that had the crowd cheering through most of the first 4 rounds. His opponent Castulo Gonzalez, 9-7 (3), from Lynn, Massachusetts, whose face showed all the signs of the battle, came on late in rounds 5 and 6 before losing a split decision to the home favorite. Scores of 58-56 and 59-56 (as this writer had it) favored the winner while a score of 58-56 favored the loser. It looks like Gonzalez is on the edge of much bigger game. His trainer Marshall Kauffman, who also worked Matthews corner has really brought Gonzalez along well.

Rounding out the card Argenis Mendez, 12-0 (8), a Dominican, fighting out of Brooklyn showed good skills for most of the first 4 rounds with his opponent Jose Navarrete, 9-15-2 (3). Navarrete never stopped coming forward and even though hurt several times exploited cracks in the young super featherweight’s armor. Mendez was the winner by split decision 60-54, 59-55 while 58-56 for Navarrete on one card.

All in all it was an outstanding show that the small crowd was treated to. Hopefully they will tell their friends for the next show in September by King Promotions.